Why marketing should be image centric

Consequently, and according to Bob Lisbon of Luminate, we are now entering a new exciting era of image and content creation. According to him, this can most effectively be reflected in three phases, accurately reflecting the current age of visual language and culture.

Photographic generation

There has been an exponential increase in the numbers of images recorded and shared. An amazing, and hard to comprehend, fact that illustrates this is that over 10% of all the photographic images taken in the entire history of photography were captured in the last 12 months. This in itself goes to show that we are quite taken by imagery.

Social networks are now used as a platform for image-centric social interaction. Photographic images and video are rapidly becoming a 'universal language'. With the fastest-growing social and media networks being Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook, it's now easier than ever for users to take, upload and rapidly share photographs, images and video online. It's not difficult to see how these sites have been embraced by their users, who have in turn embraced the visual medium.

Uploaded images can now be interacted with on sites such as Pinterest, which has over 100 million users.

As more people join the visual revolution and online visual content becomes a global social currency, it is in a company's best interests to embrace utilising images in business communications, social and marketing networks. For help and advice about making your marketing strategy more image-centric, look to companies experienced in guiding organisations through the minefield of modern marketing, such as The Peloton Marketing.

Five reasons why images are a vital modern marketing tool

If your company maintains an online store, issues press releases on a regular basis or even has a simple business page on Facebook, there are many reasons why you should be publishing photographs and images on a regular basis online as an integral part of your marketing strategy.

1. More people will see it. Articles, offers or press releases that are posted with accompanying images have up to 94% more views

2. And even more people will watch a video. Press releases with both an accompanying photograph and video usually draw up to 50% extra views

3. 60% of consumers searching for a local business online are likely to make contact if an image is displayed in the search results

4. What you see is what you get. If you are running an online shop or other ecommerce venture, research has shown that 67% of people searching for products online have claimed that the quality of the product image is 'very important' when making their final decision to purchase. Additionally, customers using online stores regard the quality of the image as even more important that the actual product description.

5. It's all in the numbers. On Facebook, the world's most popular social media site, engagement rates for photos have been seen to register at an average of 0.37%, whereas text only has a 0.27% engagement rate - a 37% lower rate for text than photos.

Catching our attention

The figures speak for themselves, but what's interesting is the reasons behind this incredible response to imagery. Why do we prefer an image over text? Perhaps because an image says a thousand words, and quickly.

Naturally, our attention is captured by visuals and colour especially triggers the brain, this form of communication requires less effort from people which, in a world of bombardment and constant messages, is far more likely to make the desired impact and a lasting impression.